Kevin Drum points to a goofy statement by NASCAR and former Indy driver Robby Gordon:

Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized.

Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick’s is lighter on the race track.
“The lighter the car, the faster it goes,” Gordon said. “Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the car at 200 pounds and our car is at least 100 pounds heavier.

“I won’t race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away.”

Um, a little concerned that she’s a better driver than you, Robby?

Drum’s thoughts on this:

Goodness! Those girls are practically cheating by being smaller than men, aren’t they? It just breaks your heart.

Still, maybe we should get into the spirit of the thing. Perhaps NASCAR’s men should be forced to drive with artificially stiffer steering wheels to make up for their naturally greater upper body strength. Maybe male tennis players should play against women but be required to use two-pound rackets. Maybe Tiger Woods should be forced to use 3 ounce golf balls.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? Men have dozens of advantages against women in practically every sport on the planet, and earn mountains of money because of it. But find one minor advantage for women in one single sport and the men suddenly start blubbering about how unfair it is. What a bunch of whiners.

Come on Kevin, it’s not the men that are whining, it’s the insecure men who are whining. Eyes on the prize and all that… after all, both you and I are men, are we not?

Update: I just saw Robby Gordon’s interview on SportsCenter and after listening to him, it seems likely to me that he wasn’t complaining about her being lighter because she’s a woman but that lighter drivers have an advantage in Indy car racing because of the way car weights are measured. It seems that NASCAR weighs cars WITH the driver inside while the Indy circuit weighs cars and drivers separately. Part of what convinced me was the fact that Gordon brought up some lighter male drivers that he’s complained about in the past.